YSL Co-Founder Pierre Bergé Auctioning Off Rare Books & Manuscripts

After selling his art collection five years ago, Pierre Bergé, the French businessman and Yves Saint Laurent Couture co-founder, will now part with around 1,000 rare books and manuscripts dating from the 15th to 20th centuries.

In collaboration with Sotheby’s, Bergé’s library collection will be auctioned in seven stages at French auction house Drouot starting in December 2015. The first stage will include around one hundred works covering a period of six centuries, by authors ranging from Saint Augustine to André Breton.

Before going on the auction block, the collection will be displayed in fall 2015 in New York, London, Geneva and Moscow.

Pierre Bergé is the former life and business partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. In addition to holding a major stake in the French newspaper Le Monde, among other publications, he is the president of Sidaction, a French initiative to raise funds and awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDS